


iactora

by antigonebelladonna



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Angst, But whatever, Fr idk what I'm doing, Gen, How Do I Tag, Hurt No Comfort, I hope it's long because I'm not even close to being done with it lol, Kidnapping, Maes Hughes Lives, Parental Maes Hughes, Parental Roy Mustang, Sorry Not Sorry, all of my fics are whump, also the title is terrible, but like all i do when i write is terrorize my favorite characters, i dont usually write about stuff like that, im shit at titling things so whatever mate, long fic, so no one is surprised, sorry i will probably change it, this fic has a lot of politics in it weirdly enough, this is gonna be a pretty rough fic for ed ngl
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-22
Updated: 2019-07-22
Packaged: 2020-07-11 16:10:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19930843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/antigonebelladonna/pseuds/antigonebelladonna
Summary: Edward is kidnapped by the state of Drachma and asked to perform the impossible or face death. Roy and his team reluctantly team up with Envy and race to rescue him before the already tense political climate between Amestris and Drachma tips into full-scale war.(CHAPTER ONE UP)





	iactora

**Author's Note:**

> starting another fic while you're in the midst of finishing a different highly requested one? we stan! :,,))  
> hey everyone! im pretty pumped about this fic. i have been planning to write it for months and months, and i'm excited to be actually getting the stuff in my brain onto paper.  
> this is my first fullmetal alchemist story, and i havent watched the anime in a while, so im not really sure where it sits with the canon. ill say it's set for sure in the manga/ brotherhood, and hughes is still alive because i cant handle his death lol. if what i write doesnt make sense with the canon story, especially with the homunculi, i apologize in advance. this will be set in in some alternate universe, probably.  
> im going to start out the story with a little bit of a deviant off the main story just to get myself ready to write in the fma universe.  
> please review and leave constructive criticism ;)  
> enjoy!  
> x

Roy could always tell when Ed walked into his office.

For one thing, Roy knew his swaggering gait so well, he could probably spot him approaching from a mile away, and since Al was almost always with the boy, he could always hear the noisy suit of armor clattering down the hallway. For another, when Edward walked in, he tended to inhale loudly so he would have enough breath in his lungs to yell at the bastard colonel a reason such as breathing at him in a way which would suggest that he thought Edward was short.

Today, however, Roy didn’t notice that Ed had entered his office until he had almost shut the door behind him. He glanced up for a moment and was startled to see Ed glowering at him. Startled, but definitely not surprised. He was wearing comfortable civilian clothes and was clutching a pile of papers in his hand.

Roy felt a flash of anger as he looked back down at the documents he had been examining.

Edward was a week and a half late. Roy had been sure to keep count. He and Al had returned from their most recent mission a week and a half ago, and instead of reporting to Roy directly like he was supposed to do and had mostly been doing for three years, he had apparently decided to take the piss and show up when he felt like it. Roy had sent over multiple people to check on them, and every time they could only find Alphonse, and Ed had mysteriously disappeared.

And now he was finally back.

Roy could already tell from one glance that Ed was even more pissed off at him than usual. It wasn't hard to tell. The kid’s face was an open book. Every feeling he had was undisguisedly displayed on his face. Roy had learned exactly was kind of mood Ed would be in just by glancing at him.

But one thing he knew for certain: Edward had better have come with a damn good explanation as to why he was showing up here like this so late, looking like he was ready to murder Roy right then and there. And he had a hunch it was going to take a few shouting matches to get the kid to tell him why.

“Fullmetal. So you decided to drop by, then,” Roy commented dryly, his eyes still on the papers in front of him.

He didn't reply.

"Where's Alphonse?" Roy asked. Ed didn't report without very often without his younger brother.

Roy looked up to see Ed giving him a stony glare. "None of your business."

Roy raised a brow at the cold tone of his voice. "Well, I'm sure I don't need to tell you that you're a week and a half late now for your report now. I sent you on a very simple case: to investigate tax evasion in Aberdeen, and you took a little longer on it than initially expected. I was told you were back in Central a week and a half ago. But then you never showed up here to see me. I sent people looking for you, and every time you either couldn’t be found or would ignore the fact that you were supposed to meet with me.”

Ed crossed his arms, keeping his eyes trained on the blank wall behind Roy.

“You are to report here to me directly after you return from a mission– not a day later, and certainly not almost two weeks later. And I don't care how badly it's written or how many complaints you've written in it--it's imperative I understand exactly what happened on the mission in case repairs or apologies need to be made. We need to know. The military is responsible for your actions. And I know you know that, Fullmetal. I remind you of that every time you report to me. We have gone over this more times than I can count. You can’t just avoid coming here because you don’t like me. We both have jobs here, and it is my job to ensure that you are doing yours correctly. You could get in a lot of trouble for insubordination for directly disobeying my orders. You need to think about how your reckless behavior affects others, and not just yourself.” Roy watched him, gauging his reaction. Ed was looking right at him, the anger in his eyes only growing more intense. “What have you been doing in the last week and a half?” Roy asked.

Ed looked away. “I’ve been busy.”

“Ah. ‘Busy,’” Roy repeated in a stony voice. “Look, Fullmetal, I know there’s something going on, and I’m going to need a better explanation than ‘I was busy.’”

Ed’s expression hardened, and he turned his gaze to look at Roy. “You know, I’ve been thinking a lot recently, colonel.”

Roy resisted the urge to sigh. Here we go. Another day, another overly dramatic Edward Elric monologue. The kid should really audition for a theater troupe.

“Do you even know what happened on the trip to Aberdeen?” Ed said, his expression hard.

“I don’t. Because you didn’t turn your report in for a week and a half,” Roy pointed out helpfully.

“No, you don’t. Of course you don’t.” Ed said, like he had been expecting that reply.

This conversation was growing harder to navigate by the second. The usual somewhat lighthearted arguing between them was gone, replaced by something more venomous.

“Let me ask you this, Colonel. What do you actually know about the philosopher’s stone?”

Well, that was out of left field. “Why do you want to know?” Roy asked.

“Can you answer the damn question?” Slippery bastard.

“Watch your tone, Fullmetal,” Roy snapped. What the hell had gotten into him? “I’ve seen a lot about the philosopher's stone over the years. It’s shown up again and again in military intelligence and Amestrian legend for hundreds of years. I know quite a bit by now, especially after following your obsessive search all these years."

Edward scoffed. "You know a bit. There we go."

"Fullmetal, what is it you're–"

"No, Mustang, this is where I get to talk," Edward said, his voice starting to rise."I've been thinking for a long time, and I've finally decided something. The reason I became a state alchemist in the first place was so we could research better and obtain the philosopher's stone and get Al's and my body back. It's been three years, and all you do is send us on endless wild goose chases, dangling the philosopher's stone in front of our noses like a carrot in front of a horse. You don't really know anything about the philosopher's stone or how to get our bodies back– it's just a decoy to force me to stay. So you can have your gain," He sneered. "A promotion to get you to the top. So I can make you look good. The prodigy alchemist, taken under your wing. It's all bullshit."

"Language, Fullmetal," Roy snapped, not even sure where to start.

"What I'm getting at is that I'm not stupid, Mustang. I know what you really want from me. You want me to show up here after the bullshit missions so you can keep me under your thumb and make sure I don't screw up your bullshit career. I'm sick of this, this endless facade. When it comes down to it, you wouldn't care if I was suddenly killed, or if Al was killed on another useless mission. It would be just another card you can use to your advantage."

There was silence in the room as Ed finished his sentence.

"Are you finished now?" Roy asked icily. He couldn't believe this. This was new levels of stupidity, even for Ed.  
  
Edward stared at him, waiting for a reaction. Waiting to be yelled at.

Roy tried not to sigh. What he really wanted to do right now was snap his fingers and flame the brat for speaking to him in that tone, but he was going to try to be reasonable. One of them had to try. "Edward," He said pointedly. "If you think all interest I have in you is for my own benefit, you'd be greatly mistaken. Now what's gotten into you? You're acting even more unreasonable than usual."

Ed looked to the side and inhaled, like he found Roy's genuine effort to be calm stupid and was resisting the urge to just walk away, which made Roy want to snap his fingers even more. Why did he even try?

"In Aberdeen, on the mission you sent Al and I on, we discovered the reason they hadn't been paying their taxes for years was because they're anti-military. But, you know I didn't know that until they tried to execute us."

Roy raised his brows.

"They… they almost killed him," Ed said through gritted teeth. "They found out he didn't have a body and they found the blood seal. He was almost… If I hadn't managed to…" He trailed off, refusing to look at Roy.

Everything was suddenly clear. The story still wasn't clear, but it was about Al, and that at least made Ed's actions seem slightly less drastic.

Slightly.

"Edward, you must know I had no idea you'd be in that situation. I wouldn't have sent you to Aberdeen if I had known that would happen. You were only meant to investigate why the state hadn't received taxes from them in three years." Ed still hadn't looked at him yet. "Edward, look at me." He said, staring intently at him.

"No," Edward said, finally looking up. "I'm not doing this anymore. I'm finished."

What the hell did that mean? "Edward, what are you–"

Ed strode to his desk and slammed the crumpled papers he had been clutching. "Here's your damn report." Ed snarled, and walked back to the door.

Roy watched him incredulously and jumped to his feet. "Edward! Edward! Come back! If you walk out that door, I'll have to–"

Ed opened the door and slammed it behind him before Roy could finish.

He stood there and watched the door as it closed, unable to believe him. Over all the years of constant bickering, Ed had never pulled something like this. This was outrageous, even for Ed.

The anger that had been bubbling over the entire conversation was now boiling in his stomach, and he wanted to go and slug Edward right in the face more than ever, but he knew that would just make it much worse.

Roy sighed and pushed his chair closer to the desk, putting his head in his hands.

Just as he was contemplating climbing through his window and taking a cab to his house so he wouldn't have to deal with the paperwork of writing Ed up, there was another knock at the door.

"Hello? Roy!"

Roy didn't have to look up to know who had just strolled into his office without permission.

"You look tired," Maes Hughes said, grinning at his friend.

Roy peeked out from the top of his fingers, giving him a bland smile. "I'm just mentally preparing myself for the three hour long one-sided conversation I know we're about to have."

"Oh, come on, Roy! You know you love our conversations! I never get to see you, and being assigned here has been one of the best things to happen to me! Talking face to face is so much better than over the phone! I do miss my little Elicia, though. Oh, I hope she's not sad I'm gone! When I get back I'll never–"

"Yes, yes," Roy said hurriedly, determined to cut off that vein of conversation before it turned into Maes ranting about how precious Elicia was for another hour. He massaged his temples. His friend's relentlessly chipper voice was giving him a headache. "I'm sure she's fine. How's it going over in interior?"

"Oh," Maes slipped into one of the armchairs and pulled it closer to his desk. "Well enough, I guess. It's pretty grueling work. I'm going to find the bastard who managed to file every single court marshal wrong in the eastern division for ten years and stuff the files down his–"

"Easy, Hughes," Roy said, giving him a small smile. "If you think about it, this is a good thing. The Fuhrer wouldn't specially give you this assignment unless he trusted you a lot. You've really made it in Central."

"Yes, Roy, but the difference between us is that my objective in life isn't to climb the bureaucratic ladder. I don't care what the Fuhrer says. You make it sound like you would rather have my job. You know, if you want to take it, I wouldn't mind–"

"You know what, I'm going to have to turn you down."

Maes gave him a cocky grin. "I'm not surprised." He sat back and yawned, putting his hands behind his head. "It's only one but I already feel like I've been here for eight hours. I was thinking we could get a drink after work."

"I may have to take you up on that. I just had an… explosive meeting with Fullmetal." Roy gestured to the rumpled pile of papers on his desk.

"Oh!" Maes said. "That explains why he looked so angry when I passed by him in the hall. Your meetings always end in shouting matches. I wish I had been here to watch. Your conversations are more entertaining than any sport I've watched. So he finally reported back, huh?"

"'Reported back,'" Roy scoffed. "More like grossly disrespected his commanding officer for a straight ten minutes."

"Oh, come on, Roy, give the kid a break. Neither of you exactly properly treat each other as superior and subordinate soldiers ought to. You're normally to blame just as much as he is for his yelling fits."

Roy sighed. "Normally I would… reluctantly agree with you, but he was completely out of line this time."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. Apparently, something bad happened to Alphonse on their last mission in Aberdeen, and that set him off on me, I guess, and he refused to come hand in his damn report for a week and a half. Something tells me Al had something to do with his finally giving in and handing in his damn report."

"You're not sure though?"

"I couldn't get the full story out of him. He was impossible."

"Well, maybe that's the problem. I doubt he would be that unreasonable unless he had good reason. But you said something happened to Alphonse?"

"That was what he said. He mentioned something about the people in Aberdeen being anti-military and they tried to execute both of them."

"Damn. We've both seen plenty of anti-military groups. Those people are no joke. Why would you send them into a situation like that?"

"Do you really think I would've sent them if I had known that would be there? I'm not completely clueless. I told you last time, I sent them there to look into why Aberdeen hadn't paid their taxes in a few years. I was expecting an easy assignment they could accomplish in a few days, not this mess. Ed was hoping to visit Resembool soon, so I intentionally tried to give him an easy mission so he could be finished quickly and get a break. Apparently, it blew up in my face, though."

Maes nodded. "What did he say to you?"

Roy scoffed. "A lot. I don't think I've ever seen him that angry at me, and that's saying something. He told me I would be happy if he or Alphonse had died and the only reason I care about him is because I use him for political reasons. He also said he was, and I quote 'done.' In just about the most disrespectful way he possibly could."

Maes raised his brows. "That's pretty extreme. But I'm not going to say I don't understand where he's coming from."

Roy gave him a look. "No. You are not taking his side on this. Nothing that happened on that mission warrants how he treated his superior officer."

Maes shrugged. "I'm just saying. And what, are you talking in the third person now?"

Roy rolled his eyes and leaned forward, putting his elbows on the desk and his chin on his hands. "I'm just not looking forward to having to report him for this. More paperwork."

"I swear, Roy, if you just talked to him the same way you talked about him to me, you would never have arguments like this."

Roy made a scoffing noise. "Yeah, right. I'll do that the day he stops calling me 'bastard colonel.'"

Maes was looking into the distance, thinking. "Look, what if I go and–"

"No." Roy. "Do not go talk to him. I don't want you to get yourself mixed up in this. This is between the two of us."

"But, Roy, I think having an intermediary between you two would be wise. You're both extremely unreasonable when dealing with each other."

"And?"

"And, I want to help, Roy. You know I care about those kids. I want to help Ed if he needs it. And it sounds like he does."

"No. I don't want you getting involved. It's as simple as that."

Maes sighed. "And you promise you'll resolve this in a less explosive way?"

"I can't promise you anything if he still has the same attitude he had earlier."

"Fine. I'm trusting you to act mature and be the adult."

Roy scoffed. "When am I not?" He asked.

Maes gave out a chuckle. "Do you really want me to answer that?"

Roy sighed. "No. I suppose not." 

* * *

Ed slammed the door behind him and paused, his hand still on the door handle. He knew he hadn't been completely fair to Mustang, and he was probably in a lot of trouble for what he said, but he was past caring. The nightmares still hadn't left yet, and it had almost been two weeks. Sleepless nights and too much thinking had made him more irritable than usual, and seeing Mustang in person had made him act more pissed off than he actually was. He had just taken his anger out on the colonel and he didn't really deserve it. Though he would never admit it to the bastard's face.

He still wasn't sure why Aberdeen had affected him in this way. He had been through far worse than that with Al without his nightmares being that bad. They hadn't been this bad in years. It had been a while since he'd woken up multiple times in the night, cold and sweaty and shaking. Every single one of the dreams was the same: Al being killed and it being his fault somehow. It was most likely because he hadn't seen Al so close to death like that before. They had almost destroyed the fragile bond that connected his soul to the earth– Ed's dried blood smeared on the inside of Al's helmet. One small scratch and he would be gone. Ed's entire world and purpose would fall apart.

If he hadn't brutally injured half the people in that room, Al would have been killed. And it had been close. Ed had barely managed to stop them in time.

Ed knew he needed to stop blaming himself for what had happened. He had gone through this whole illogical guilt trip before. How could he, or Mustang for that matter, have known that there were very hostile anti-military soldiers using Aberdeen as a hideout? Mustang had sent him to investigate a case of tax evasion, not what they had faced.

He could still see it in his head– Al being held down to the ground by those horrible people, his cries for help ringing in his ears, mingled with the cruel laughs of the men dressed in black–

Ed shook his head. No, he wasn't doing that. Not again. Not right now.

Ed took his hand off the doorknob and took off down the hallway, wanting to get as much distance between himself and the bastard colonel as possible. He knew eventually he'd have to own up to everything he'd screwed up for the last few weeks, but for now he would just hide from his responsibilities as long as possible and ignore Al’s reasonable advice to go back to the colonel and talk.

He was taking the fastest way out, the side door. He had found every nook and cranny in this building over the last few years, including the best places to hide from Mustang and the fastest ways to escape from him. Hopefully, he wouldn't pass by anyone else asking prying questions.

He turned into the next hallway, passing by Fuery and Fallman in the break room. He could hear them chattering, and they thankfully didn't see him.

Ed was so deep in his thoughts, he didn't notice Hughes walking down the hallway until they almost collided into each other.

“Ed! Hey!” He was grinning at him, and Ed tried not to look too sour.

“Hey, major,” He mumbled.

“I don't think I got the chance to tell you yet! I'm staying in East City for a few weeks, isn't it exciting? I get to see you and Al more!"

"That's great," Ed said, trying to muster up some enthusiasm, but it still came out as flat. "I was just on my way to see Roy! You know, come to think of it, I haven’t seen you in a while! Finally back from that mission?”

“Um, yeah. I’ll see you later.” Ed didn't even look at him as he walked back down the hallway.

“Ed! Are you okay?” Hughes sounded concerned.

"I'm fine! Bye!" Ed waved at him as he turned around and quickly walked to the exit, leaving behind a confused Hughes.

Ed half sprinted down the hallway. Just one more turn and he'd be at the door. He started walking faster, and just as was almost there–

"Edward?"

Oh, great. Ed froze. How bad could his luck be?

"This is a surprise. You're a little late, to say the least. You've finally shown up to report?"

Ed turned around and tried not to sigh at Riza Hawkeye, who was standing in the hallway, holding a cup of coffee and a handful of files, looking as stringent as ever.

"Uh, yes. Ma'am."

"I'm sure the colonel was a bit angry. He's been going on quite a rant every day about how long you've been gone. I was sent to retrieve you several times, and Al said you weren't available every time."

Of course he did. "Yeah. Uh, it didn't go well."

"I can imagine," Riza looked at him curiously. "Are you alright, Edward? I've been a little worried. I can't remember a time you've ever actively avoided us so much."

Ed gave a weak smile. "Yeah. I, ah, I actually need to head back. To Al." He started inching to the hallway, watching Riza's brow crease.

"Edward, come on, we're not finished talking. Ed!"

Ed turned around and half sprinted down the hall to the doors, passing by another group of soldiers, thankfully no one else he knew.

He pushed open the doors, and was almost blinded by the bright sunlight. He walked down the courtyard, hopefully as far away from Eastern Headquarters as possible.

Well, he had made a mess out of that. No doubt Mustang and Hawkeye were about to plan his demise together. He wouldn't be surprised if they paid him a visit tonight and simultaneously shot and flamed him.

Ed followed the sidewalk out to the front of the building, pulling his jacket closer to himself. He made it to the curb without anyone else stopping him, and he managed to quickly hail a taxi, just as it started to rain lightly.

He held a hand over his face to block the raindrops as he climbed into the cab. He instructed them where to go and leaned his elbow against the armrest, running a hand through his messy ponytail. He hadn't washed his hair in weeks, but he hadn't cared about it like he usually did.

He leaned his face against his hand, and within a few seconds he was dozing off in the quiet air of the taxi.

* * *

It had started raining at one.

Ilik watched the raindrops hit the pavement through the window, stretched out on the couch, his legs hanging off the edge lazily. He was too tall for the couch, along with most of the furniture in that wretched house. He flicked the lighter open in his hand, ignoring the fact that the spark was centimeters from catching the couch on fire. He had opened and closed the lighter probably hundreds of times that day, and had set fire to multiple things around the house and doused water on them, but the novelty was starting to wear off. Why did the owner of this house have to be so damn boring? No alcohol, no cigars, just lots of shelves filled with books he couldn't even read.

He had never wanted to learn Amestrian before, but now he wished he had, just to stave off some of the boredom. But really, he should have figured Amestrian soldiers were so much more boring than Drachman. His contempt for them had only increased as he spent more time in the country.

He wished he could just go outside, get drunk at a nearby bar, and find a lay, but what was the point if he couldn't even communicate with anyone there? He doubted that Amestris had any bars worth going to anyway.

He was eternally pissed off that he had been sent on this mission. He respected and trusted the king endlessly, but why he had thought Ilik was the best man for this was beyond him. Kelna had made sense to him. He was skilled at espionage and disguises, and his Amestrian and accent were impeccable. Ilik, however, was not strong in any of those fields. His strength resided more in the areas of brute strength and combat, and this assignment called for anything but.

All he knew was this kid had better be worth all the trouble. He had heard stories of the fullmetal alchemist for years, and the pictures of him seemed unable to live up to the hype. He was a small child, and as far as he was concerned, a child couldn't do the things that he had heard he was able to do.

The fact that he was a child just made Ilik despise him even more. It was a perfect example of the corruption and mismanaged power of Amestris. A child, walking around with the rank of a military general, using his powers for his own whims instead of for the benefit of the state.

At the end of the day, it didn't matter what he thought. He owed it to his country to follow the orders of King Sanborn, and he would do whatever the king told him to, for the sake of his fellow countrymen.

Ilik flicked the lighter again and looked up at the clock again. Kelna was late, again. Of course. The only interesting part of his day was talking to that shrimp about what was going on, which showed just how desperately boring the last five days had been for him.

Above all, he hated feeling so useless. He was never this useless on missions usually, but his inability to speak Amestrian and short patience for stakeouts and espionage made him unable to help Kelna.

He sighed and pushed himself to his feet, yawning and stretching to his full six and a half foot height. He could practically feel his muscles atrophying after laying around for hours at a time. Kelna wouldn't let him exercise outside except for at night for fear of someone seeing him, so Ilik would run for miles around an empty block at midnight. He did several sets of exercise every day, but being contained in such a small space where he had to duck to enter a room was making him feel like a rat in a cage.

Ilik stretched his arms behind his back and walked out of the living room into the kitchen. He opened the fridge and sighed. Kelna only bought healthy things from the grocery store, and he was filled with a new urge to punch his lights out, a sensation he felt regularly. He didn't want to eat fucking lettuce and apples.

Ilik sighed and grabbed the apple. It wasn't like he had any choice. He took a huge bite and looked up when he heard a grinding noise coming from the other room. He was confused for a moment, then he remembered.

Finally! Something interesting. He rushed to the adjoining bedroom and threw himself into the chair in front of the desk in the corner. The message was being printed out slowly. He bent his head sideways and watched it. There wasn't any point, really. It was impossible to read the code straight off the paper. He would have to put it through the key. Now he really wished that Kelna was there. He was much better at this than he was.

.. --.. -- . -. . -. .. -.-- . / .--. .-.. .- -. --- ...- .-.-.- / .--. .-. --- -.-- -.. .. - . / --- .--. . .-. .- - ... .. -.-- ..- / ... . --. --- -.. -. -.-- .- / ...- . -.-. .... . .-. --- -- .-.-.- / --- ... - .- ...- - . / ... / .--. .- -.- . - --- -- / ... . --. --- -.. -. -.-- .- / ...- . -.-. .... . .-. --- -- .-.-.-

Ilik sighed as he pulled the stack of papers out of the desk. Work like this made him want to hit something, but it certainly was better than laying around on the couch.

Figuring out which key to use was the hardest part, but when he did, it only took him around thirty minutes to crack the code.

Change of plans.  
Go through with operation tonight.  
Leave with package tonight.

Ilik couldn't help but smile a little. Finally. No more waiting around. It would finally be done, and they could get this over with.

Now all he had to do was wait until tonight.

**Author's Note:**

> and that's a wrap on the first chapter! i promise we'll get to the actual story i have in the summary of the story soon haha. that last bit at the end is the first part of the main story.
> 
> please, please give feedback. i want to hear any thoughts you have, and anything you'd like to see in this story :)  
> ill be writing the next chapter! see you then!  
> thanks for reading!  
> x


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